I’m watching an episode from the final season, and Bobby told Christopher that there were times when it took a week or two just to move the cows from one pasture to another. That seems mighty large to me.
If Lucy is correct, and she would know, then most of it would be sage brush not suitable for grazing.
If you'd like to know how much they used for the working ranch, I can get you a pretty close estimate.
We hear about section 40 quite a bit. So we know that is a section by itself and we have seen that it is used for pasture. During the episodes where Carter Mckay starts a range war, it is implied that there is at least another section used for pasture. If the house was originally settled on it's own section, then there would be three sections altogether that are used for actual grazing of cattle.
For our friends outside of the U.S., a section of land is one square mile (1.6 kilometers). So three sections of land would be three square miles or 4.8 square kilometers.
Is this interesting to you? Then read on:
Ray said that before they tried a Milo Hybrid, they could graze two and a half cows per acre. So how many head could they run?
Lets say that the house, pool, and yard take up 6 acres. And the Barns and paddocks take up another 40.
And let's say the bunk house and yard take up another 5 acres. And Ray's house is on the "back 40".
And we lose 20 acres due to access roads, wind mills, and the like.
That leaves us with 1849 acres available for grazing.
At 2.5 cows per acre, they could run 4,622 head of cattle.
Now, let's say that in 2019, the average price of a beef cow is $2800. That means the herd is worth $ 12 million.
Add to that stud fees (I mean stud fees for the bulls, not Bobby Ewing) and you have a profitable ranch.
I hope you all enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed typing it. You might say I have spent some time around Texas ranches.